Instagram’s rumoured Twitter rival, Threads, appears to be closer than ever with the app briefly appearing on the Google Play Store before hurriedly being pulled.
The app has been in the works for some time with rumours emerging in May of a potential launch last month.
With the unintended reveal on the Play Store, we have been able to get a good look at the app and how it will play with Instagram and the other areas of the Meta app ecosystem.
Here’s the store listing screenshots 👇🏻 pic.twitter.com/kBK9OSRhNF
— Alessandro Paluzzi (@alex193a) July 1, 2023
Users will be able to keep their existing Instagram handle and log into the app using the same details. From there, followers will be shared but users will not be mandated to follow the same people across both apps.
The UI is remarkably similar to Twitter, with likes expressed as love hearts, near-identical repost and reply buttons and a familiar share button borrowed from Instagram. The number of replies and likes are also disclosed beneath a post.
What this leak hasn’t given us is a view of how the app will be monetised. Instagram has a variety of options for monetisation, ranging from in-app product purchasing to simple sponsored posts.
One would expect that Threads would at least start with a sponsored post feature to help drive some revenue.
Twitter’s collapse in advertising revenue and overall credibility following Elon Musk’s takeover has been well documented. Given that Threads would have a ready-to-go userbase from Instagram compared to other nascent Twitter rivals, it will almost certainly have a scale and reach advantage over its potential competitors.
Meta’s ad revenue also managed to climb some four per cent year-over-year and adding a new platform to the mix might be another potential growth lever for CEO Mark Zuckerberg to atone for the staggering losses the company’s metaverse division continues to make. Regardless, we’ll be keeping an eye on Threads and how it might disrupt your media planning — if at all.
